The increasing demand for gold and other precious metals for industrial processes, investments, and other uses has caused the market prices for such metals to increase to record levels. The high market price of gold has prompted owners of gold and other precious metals to frequent establishments equipped to purchase these metals. Because metals presented for sale may be from different areas and may be of varying composition, metal buying establishments must either smelt or assay such metals before they can, in turn, sell it to an establishment capable of processing it. As used herein, the term gold will be assumed to include other precious metals such as, but not limited to, silver, platinum, copper, etc.
Such gold or gold alloys may be located in areas not readily serviced by roads making the transportable, self-contained smelting and assay facility disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/364,422 filed Feb. 2, 2012 for Transportable Assay Facility and Method of Using Same to Procure and Assay Precious Metals, hereinafter the '422 application that is in turn a Continuation-in-Part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/136,811 filed Aug. 11, 2011 titled Transportable Assay Facility and Method of Using Same to Procure and Assay Precious Metals, hereinafter the '811 application unusable. However, as previously noted, both the '422 and '811 applications have been included herein by reference. Such transportable assay facilities are useless for providing smelting and assaying functions to locations that are not reachable by road. Therefore, the need exists for a transportable, self-contained assay facility for use in areas not served by roads. Such a transportable, self-contained assay facility may be delivered to a site by aircraft or other suitable means not dependent upon the existence of a road.